A holistic measurement of blood pressure.

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A holistic  measurement of blood pressure.

เขียนเป็นอังกิด เผื่อฟลุก เข้าตาหมอฝรั่ง แล้วจะยกรางวัลโนเบลด้านการแพทย์แก่เรา

When we take a blood pressure measurement (BPM), what are reported are the high (S, systolic), the low (D, diastolic) and the pulse rate (P). These 3 numbers are used separately to diagnose the symptoms of a patient.

In this short letter, it will be proposed another 2 values for BPM, derived from the BPM itself, namely: SMD and SMDxP where SMD is the value of S minuses D and  SMDxP is the value of SMD multiplied by P.  

For example, a measurement of 130/90/80 is better than 120/70/80 when analyzed with SMD  but will probably be diagnosed by a doctor as the other way around.

Now let’s compare a new set of data: 140/90/70 and  120/70/90. The SMDxP of the 2 sets are, 3500 and 4500, respectively; rendering the first one to be much better than the second one; while again, most doctors will say that  the second is better due to its vastly lower value of S. ฺBy chance, the SMD values of the two sets are equal at 50.

For a patient to be considered as gravely ill, one, or some or all of the following conditions should be met:

• 1)  The value of S is too high , eg., 180.
• 2) The value of  SMD is too high, eg., 60. (could caused by D being too low.)
• 3) The value of SMDxP is too high, eg., 3500.

 It is suggested that the values SMD of 40 and SMDxP of 3000 are preferable than other values that are too high or too low. A value of SMD of 40 is considered as normal while a value that is too high (such as 65) can cause an acute heart failure . The SMDxP of 3000 is suggested. A value which is too high indicates that the heart is working too hard over a long period of time and this should affect the longevity of the patient.

The findings of SMD and SMDxP  are due to the past experience of the author to be a researcher in the area of pump and tube system design where we can analogized the heart as a pump and the blood vessel lines as a system of tubes. The clogging of the blood line can also be analogized to a rusted metal tube in engineering design.

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A measurement like this is holistic in that we combine two or more values to become a new measurement value which enable us to diagnose blood pressure symptoms in a broader and  more comprehensive sense.

---Tawit Chitsomboon, Ph.D.

Former instructor of Mechanical Engineering.

SuTech, Thailand.

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